Unsung Choral Music

[albion]

This is a general thread for choral music of any nationality.

George Upton's book The Standard Concert Guide ( 1908) features yummy descriptions of some long forgotten oratorios that I would give ( almost) anything to hear. Here's hoping for:

BENEDICT: Saint Cecilia
BENNETT: The Woman of Samaria; The May Queen
BUCK: Don Munio; The Golden Legend; The Voyage of Columbus; The Light of Asia
CORDER: The Bridal of Triermain
COSTA: Eli
COWEN: The Sleeping Beauty
FOOTE: Haiwatha
HATTON: Robin Hood
HOFMANN: Melusina
LESLIE: Holyrood
MACFARREN: St John the Baptist; Christmas
MACKENZIE: The Story of Sayid; The Rose of Sharon;Bethlehem
PAINE: The Realm of Fancy; Phoebus Arise
HW PARKER: King Trojan
JCD PARKER: Redemption
RANDEGGER: Fridolin
RHEINBERGER: Toggenburg
RUBINSTEIN: The Tower of Babel
SMART: The Daughter of Dunkeron; King Rene's Daughter

Of these, only the following are strictly oratorios:

Michael Costa (1808-1884) - Eli (1855)
George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) - St John the Baptist (1873)
Alexander Mackenzie (1847-1935) - The Rose of Sharon (1884)

Mackenzie attempted to expand the oratorio genre, describing The Rose of Sharon as a 'Dramatic Oratorio'. Bethlehem (composed 1892, performed 1894) sets a text by Joseph Bennett and is a peculiar oratorio-cantata hybrid, described as a 'Mystery'.

Rheinberger's Toggenburg (1874) is a song-cycle, Rubinstein's The Tower of Babel (1869) is styled a 'sacred opera' and the rest, including A Redemption Hymn (1877) by James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916) are either sacred or secular cantatas.

If you enjoy reading about obscure oratorios (and, let's face it, who doesn't  ) I would recommend the excellent A History of the Oratorio IV - The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (North Carolina University Press, 2000) by Howard Smither. If you hunt around there are reasonably priced copies available both new and second-hand.

[mikehopf]

Thanks for the information, Albion.

The Smithers book is one of my very favourites.

I can also recommend The World of the Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen ( Amadeus Press) and of course the wonderful Upton books - all available from Amazon.

We are fortunate in Melbourne to have an annual Oratorio Competition... mostly Handel & Mendelssohn but a few rarities now and again.

[albion]

Of unrecorded works by composers active during the peak years of large-scale British choral composition (roughly 1850-1914, aka the choral conveyor-belt), the following are perhaps more deserving of professional exploration than most:

George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) – May Day (1856); St John the Baptist (1873); The Lady of the Lake (1877)

Henry Hugo Pierson (1815-1873) - Jerusalem (1852)

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) – On Shore and Sea (1871)*; The Martyr of Antioch (1880)*

Alexander Mackenzie (1847-1935) – The Bride (1881); The Rose of Sharon (1884); The Dream of Jubal (1889); The Cotter's Saturday Night (1889); Veni, Creator Spiritus (1891); The Sun-God's Return (1910)

Hubert Parry (1848-1918) – Prometheus Unbound (1880)*; L'Allegro ed il Penseroso (1890); Magnificat (1897); Ode to Music (1901); The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905)

Frederic Cowen (1852-1935) – The Sleeping Beauty (1885); The Water-Lily (1892); Ode to the Passions (1898); The Veil (1910)

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) – Elegiac Ode (1884); The Voyage of Maeldune (1889); Eden (1891); Phaudrig Crohoore (1896)*; Te Deum (1898)*; Merlin and the Gleam (1919)

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) - Sleepless Dreams (1910); Hey Nonny No (1910); The Prison (1930)

Granville Bantock (1868-1946) – The Time Spirit (1904); Sea-Wanderers (1907)*; The Great God Pan (1914-15)

Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) - The Song of St Francis (1912)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) – Meg Blane (1902)*; A Tale of Old Japan (1911)

Havergal Brian (1876-1972) – By the Waters of Babylon (1905-09); The Vision of Cleopatra (1908)

Unfortunately, the full scores of both Brian works are lost, but sympathetic and idiomatic re-orchestration from the vocal scores could be attempted.

Joseph Holbrooke (1878-1958) – Queen Mab (1902, p.1904); The Bells (1903, p.1906)*; Apollo and the Seaman (1907, p.1908)

Queen Mab and Apollo and the Seaman are principally orchestral works with extended choral epilogues.

Cyril Scott (1879-1970) – Nativity Hymn (1913-14)


* works either recorded semi-professionally or existing in broadcast performances

[Jimfin]

Great list. I would really love to hear Smyth's 'The Prison', but I expect it will be low on this list. Getting hopeful for some of the Holbrooke, though.

[Latvian]

Havergal Brian (1876-1972) – By the Waters of Babylon (1905-09); The Vision of Cleopatra (1908)

Unfortunately, the full scores of both Brian works are lost, but sympathetic and idiomatic re-orchestration from the vocal scores could be attempted.

I may as well come clean and admit I've done some work on this matter myself. Ten years ago, I created a new performing edition of By the Waters of Babylon, with the cooperation and approval of the Brian Society, and conducted the premiere of this version (see http://www.havergalbrian.org/bywaters.htm).

It's a marvelous and fascinating work, and I very much enjoyed discovering it. There is a lengthy tale as to how this all came about, which I don't have time to recount just now, but if there's interest I can divulge it at some point. As for the music, it's prime early Brian, with hints of Elgar and other contemporaries at times, and some really remarkable and original writing at other times, with frequent suggestions of the Brian style to come. The second major section of the work (it's all in one continuous movement) is in 5/2 time, which I've never encountered in any other work of the period! In all honesty, there are also some bits of clumsiness and less than optimal writing, but considering the extent of Brian's musical training and experience at the time, it's more amazing that so much of it is very good.

My version is with organ accompaniment, however the score cries out for an orchestra, and I've toyed with some orchestration of it, but I just haven't had the time to carry it through, nor the expertise to pull it off idiomatically without some further research. As it stands, the Brian Society has promised to publish my performing version once I put the finishing touches on it. Then, perhaps some enterprising choir(s) will take up the cause!

Sadly, I don't have a decent recording of the premiere that I can share, for a number of reasons, but perhaps I can create a decent MIDI realization from the score which I created with Sibelius software.

I'd love to work on Cleopatra as well!

[albion]

Latvian, thanks for 'divulging' your close involvement with Brian's early choral music. Both works positively leap from the pages of the vocal scores as absolutely sui generis in terms of contemporary British music (if not music generally).

It would be wonderful if they could be re-orchestrated and revived, but in the interim it would be very useful to have a midi realisation of one or both!

[edurban]

I have long enjoyed the vocal score of Costa's Eli, especially the big choral fugue on a subject that sounds just like Indiana Jones' theme.  The whole piece isn't equally fun, but it was worth the $3 just for that movement. 

Julius Benedict's St. Peter, on the other hand, puts me to sleep and has gathered impressive dust in the closet.

David

[edurban]

I'm repeating this previously posted Upton description of Macfarren's cantata Christmas (although it's long.)  The words of the final chorus are omitted.  I particularly enjoy the way the 'Christmas story' turns into a blood-bath:

"'Christmas,' the poem by John Oxenford, was written in 1859, and was first performed at one of the concerts of the Musical Society of London, on the 9th of May 1860.  The poem itself contains no story.  It is merely a tribute to the season; but at the same time it is not destitute of incident, so that it possesses considerable dramatic interest.

After a short instrumental introduction the cantata  opens with a double chorus in antiphonal style, in which both the bright and dark sides of winter are celebrated.  The second choir takes up the theme:-

     "The trees lift up their branches bare
        Against the sky:
        Through the keen and nipping air
        For Spring's return they seem to cry,
        As the winds with solemn tone
        About them sadly moan;"

And the first choir replies:-

     "Old Winter's hand is always free,
       He scatters diamonds round;
       They dart their light from every tree,
       They glisten on the ground,
       Then who shall call the branches bare,
       When gems like those are sparkling there?"

The two then join and bring their friendly contest to a close:-

2nd Choir.- "Come in, and closely shut the door
                      Against the wintry weather;
                     Of frost and snow we'll think no more,
                        While round the fire we sit together."

1st Choir.- "Rush out from every cottage door,
                   'T is brave and bracing weather;
                     A madder throng ne'er met before,
                    Than those which now have come together.

This double number, which is very effective, is followed by a soprano recitative and romance ("Welcome, blest Season"), tender and yet joyous in character,  which celebrates the delight of friendly reunions at Christmas tide, and the pleasure with which those long absent seek "the old familiar door."  In the next number, an old English carol ("A Blessing on the noble House and all who in it dwell"), Christmas is fairly introduced.  It is sung first in unison by the full chorus, then changes to harmony, in which one choir retains the melody, and closes with a new subject for orchestral treatment, the united choirs singing the carol.  Christmas would not be complete without its story; and this we have in the next number for contralto solo and chorus, entitled, "A Christmas Tale."  It is preceded by recitative, written in the old English style, and each verse closes with a refrain, first sung as a solo, and then repeated in full harmony by the chorus:-

     "A bleak and kindless morning had broke on Althenay,
       Where shunning Danish foemen the good King Alfred lay;
       'In search of food our hunters departed long ago,
        I fear that they have perished, imbedded in the snow.'
       While thus he sadly muses, an aged man he sees,
       With white hair on his forehead like the frost upon the trees.
        An image of the winter the haggard pilgrim stands,
     And breathing forth his sorrows, lifts up his withered hands:
           'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
            Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'

"'Our hearts are moved with pity, thy sufferings we deplore,'
   Said Alfred's queen, the gentle, 'but scanty is our store;
   One loaf alone is left us.'  'Then give it,' said the King,
  'For He who feeds the ravens, yes, He will fresh abundance bring.'
   The wind was roaring loudly, the snow was falling fast,
   As from the lofty turret the last, last loaf he cast.
   An image of the winter, the haggard pilgrim stands,
   And Alfred's welcome pittance he catches in his hands.
          'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
           Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'

"The snow is thickly falling, the winter wind is loud,
  But yonder in the distance appears a joyous crowd.
  The hunters bring their booty, the peasants bring their corn,
  And cheering songs of triumph along the blast are borne.
  Before another morning, down-stricken is the foe,
  And blood of Danish warriors is red upon the snow.
  Amid the conquering Saxons the aged pilgrim stands,
  And like a holy prophet exclaims with lifted hands,
         'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
           Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'"

A graceful little duet for female voices ("Little Children, all rejoice") picturing the delights of childhood and its exemption from care, follows the Saxon story and leads up to the finale, which is choral throughout, and gives all the pleasant details of Christmas cheer, - the feast in the vaulted hall, the baron of beef, the boar with a lemon in his jaw, the pudding, "gem of all the feast," the generous wassail, and the mistletoe bough with its warning to maids.  In delightfuly picturesque old English music the joyous scene comes to an end."

[Dundonnell]

Fascinating, Latvian

[jerfilm]

Here are a few other ideas gleaned again, from two older Grove's editions:

Arienzo, Nicolo d'  (1842-1915   Oratorio: Cristo sulla croce
Arregui, Vicente  (1871-1925)                   Oratorio: San Francisco
Audran, Edmond  (1840-1901)                   Oratorio: La Sulamite
Bristow, George, F.  (1825-189   Oratorios – 2
Kaun, Hugo  (1863-1932)      Oratorio- Christus
Kiel, Friedrich (1821-1885)      Oratorio- Christus
Liuzzi, Fernando  (1884-1940)     Oratorios: La Passione and Laudi Francescani
Meinardus, Ludwig  (1827-1896)   Oratorios
Parry, Sir Hubert  (1848-1918)    Oratorios: Judith, Job and King Saul
Ryelandt, Josef  (1870-19??)      Oratorios: Maria, Coming of the Savior and Christus Rex         
Tinel, Edgar  (1854-1912)      Oratorio: Franciscus, opus 36
Torrance, George  (1835-1907)   Oratorios: Revelation, Captivity and Abraham
Turpin, Edmund  (1835-1907)                   Oratorios: John the Baptist and Hezekiah
Vittadini, Franco  (1884-1948)                   Oratorios: The birth of Jesus  & The Seven Words of Christ
Vogel, Charles  (1808-1892)      Oratorio: Le Jugement Dernier
Wade, Joseph  (1801-1845)      Oratorio: The Prophecy

Sorry the formatting copied from a Word document doesn't seem to work right.  Looks right before posting - then, zip...
Jerry

[Mark Thomas]

If we've gone international. let's not forget Raff's Oratorio World's End - Judgement - New World op.212 of 1881, which had its British première in 1883 at the Leeds Festival under the baton of Sir Arthur Sullivan. There aren't that many works which have miniature tone-poems depicting each of the Four Horsemen of he Apocalypse! He'd just started work on another, "John the Baptist", when he died.

[albion]

I have long enjoyed the vocal score of Costa's Eli, especially the big choral fugue on a subject that sounds just like Indiana Jone's theme.  It's not all that fun, but it was worth the $3 just for that movement. 

Julius Benedict's St. Peter, on the other hand, puts me to sleep and has gathered impressive dust in the closet.

David

Yes, Eli (Birmingham, 1855) is jolly and unashamedly vulgar, whereas St Peter (Birmingham, 1870) is crippled by moribund piety and the sub-Mendelssohnian trappings of Victorian music at its least appealing.

Unsung British oratorios (c. 1850-1914) are a much poorer crop on the whole than the cantatas, liturgical works and odes. Pierson's Jerusalem (Norwich, 1852) and Mackenzie's The Rose of Sharon (Norwich, 1884) are the best of them by quite some margin, followed by Macfarren's lively St John the Baptist (Bristol, 1873) and Stanford's Eden (Birmingham, 1891) which is a fascinating, if very uneven, score.

Oratorio found Parry at his worst and he detested the genre, grudgingly fulfilling commissions for Birmingham (Judith, 1888 and King Saul, 1894) and his attempt at a shorter work (Job, Gloucester, 1892) is musically poverty-stricken compared to the best of his contemporary secular music. Likewise, for its pastoral, unsanctimonious tone, I would advocate Cowen's Ruth (Worcester, 1887) were it not markedly inferior to the best of his cantatas.

As a great admirer of Sullivan I would like to find The Light of the World (Birmingham, 1873) more engaging than I do - one or two passages are impressive (especially the dramatic crowd interjections in the synagogue and several of the massive choruses which Sullivan used as pillars to close each of the scenes) but vast swathes of the elephantine structure sag under the weight of turgid sentiment. The Prodigal Son (Worcester, 1869) is more compact, quite dramatic and much more appealing.

If we've gone international.

O, ja! It's not a specifically Unsung British Oratorios thread.

[Alan Howe]

You'd never know...

[albion]

You'd never know...

I think that the thread-title rather gives the game away, but lest the Austro-German hegemony be left panting in the field, under starter's orders then - away you go!

[erato]

Anybody heard Ludvig Irgens-Jensens's Heimferd (Homecoming)? As it is available on Simax it is not completely unsung, but a very good work and mostly unheard outside of Norway.